Name: ______Period: ______Score: ______/ 40
Sensation & Perception Test Review
1. Sensation is to ______as perception is to ______.
A)encoding; detection
B)detection; interpretation
C)interpretation; organization
D)organization; accommodation
E)threshold; transduction
2. Bottom-up processing involves analysis that begins with the
A)optic nerve.
B)sensory receptors.
C)cerebral cortex.
D)feature detectors.
E)occipital lobe.
3. The minimum amount of stimulation a person needs to detect a stimulus 50 percent of the time is called the
A)adaptation threshold.
B)difference threshold.
C)subliminal threshold.
D)absolute threshold.
E)change threshold.
4. Which theory emphasizes that personal expectations and motivations influence the level of absolute thresholds?
A)signal detection theory
B)frequency theory
C)opponent-process theory
D)place theory
E)bottom-up theory
5. A subliminal message is one that is presented
A)while an individual is under hypnosis.
B)below one's absolute threshold for awareness.
C)in a manner that is unconsciously persuasive.
D)with very soft background music.
E)repetitiously.
6. If you move your watchband up your wrist an inch or so, you will feel it for only a few moments. This best illustrates
A)parallel processing.
B)accommodation.
C)sensory adaptation.
D)Weber's law.
7. Interpreting new sensory information within the framework of a past memory illustrates
A)accommodation.
B)top-down processing.
C)Weber's law.
D)sensory adaptation.
8. The size of the difference threshold is greater for heavier objects than for lighter ones. This best illustrates
A)sensory interaction.
B)the volley principle.
C)Weber's law.
D)the opponent-process theory.
9. Humans experience the longest visible electromagnetic waves as
A)the color blue-violet and the shortest visible waves as red.
B)the color red and the shortest visible waves as green.
C)the color blue and the shortest visible waves as yellow.
D)the color red and the shortest visible waves as blue-violet.
E)the color black and the shortest visible waves as white.
10. The process by which our sensory systems convert stimulus energies into neural messages is called
A)priming.
B)sensory adaptation.
C)transduction.
D)parallel processing.
E)sensory interaction.
11. The amount of light entering the eye is regulated by the
A)lens.
B)iris.
C)retina.
D)optic nerve.
E)feature detectors.
12. Accommodation refers to the
A)diminishing sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus.
B)system for sensing the position and movement of muscles, tendons, and joints.
C)quivering eye movements that enable the retina to detect continuous stimulation.
D)process by which stimulus energies are changed into neural messages.
E)process by which the lens changes shape in order to focus images on the retina.
13. The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the rods and cones, is the
A)fovea.
B)optic nerve.
C)cornea.
D)retina.
E)iris.
14. Multiple ______send combined messages to a bipolar cell, whereas a single ______may link directly to a singlebipolar cell.
A)rods; cone
B)cones; rod
C)hair cells; basilar membrane
D)basilar membranes; hair cell
15. The area of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye is called the
A)blind spot.
B)pupil.
C)visual cortex.
D)cornea.
E)lens.
16. Which cells for visual processing are located closest to the back of the retina?
A)ganglion cells
B)bipolar cells
C)rods and cones
D)feature detectors
E)occipital cells
17. Evidence that some cones are especially sensitive to red light, others to green light, and still others to blue light is mostdirectly supportive of the ______theory.
A)frequency
B)Young-Helmholtz
C)gate-control
D)opponent-process
E)signal detection
18. According to the opponent-process theory, cells that are stimulated by exposure to ______light are inhibited byexposure to ______light.
A)red; blue
B)blue; green
C)yellow; green
D)blue; red
E)yellow; blue
19. The retina is to the eye as the ______is to the ear.
A)auditory nerve
B)cochlea
C)auditory canal
D)eardrum
E)eustachian tube
20. After a small section of his basilar membrane was damaged, Jason experienced a noticeable loss of hearing forhigh-pitched sounds only. Jason's hearing loss is best explained by the ______theory.
A)gate-control
B)frequency
C)Young-Helmholtz
D)opponent-process
E)place
21. Damage to the basilar membrane is most likely to affect one's
A)vision.
B)audition.
C)sense of smell.
D)vestibular sense.
22. A time lag between left and right auditory stimulation is important for accurately
A)locating sounds.
B)detecting pitch.
C)recognizing rhythms.
D)judging amplitude.
E)determining frequency.
23. Kinesthesis refers to the
A)quivering eye movements that enable the retina to detect continuous stimulation.
B)process by which stimulus energies are changed into neural signals.
C)diminished sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus.
D)system for sensing the position and movement of muscles, tendons, and joints.
E)process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.
24. The ability to detect whether your body is in a horizontal or vertical position depends most directly on
A)accommodation.
B)sensory adaptation.
C)the vestibular sense.
D)olfactory receptors.
E)subliminal stimulation.
25. With her eyes closed and her nose plugged, Chandra was unable to taste the difference between an onion and a pear. Herexperience best illustrates the importance of
A)sensory interaction.
B)sensory transduction.
C)sensory adaptation.
D)accommodation.
E)subliminal stimulation.
26. Our sense of taste originally was thought to involve only the following four sensations
A)sweet, salty, starch, and bitter.
B)salty, fatty, bitter, and sweet.
C)sour, bitter, sweet, and starchy.
D)bitter, sweet, sour, and salty.
E)fruity, fatty, silky, and coarse.
27. Which of the following senses is best described as a chemical sense?
A)touch
B)kinesthesis
C)audition
D)vision
E)smell
28. The convergence of parallel lines provides the distance cue known as
A)interposition.
B)closure.
C)relative height.
D)linear perspective.
E)continuity.
29. As the retinal image of a horse galloping toward you becomes larger, it is unlikely that the horse will appear to growlarger. This best illustrates the phenomenon of
A)visual capture.
B)size constancy.
C)closure.
D)convergence.
E)linear perspective.
30. The way in which you quickly group the individual letters in this test item into separate words best illustrates the principleof
A)closure.
B)proximity.
C)interposition.
D)perceptual constancy.
31. The distance between our right and left eyes functions to provide us with a cue for depth perception known as
A)proximity.
B)interposition.
C)retinal disparity.
D)linear perspective.
32. When subjects wore prism goggles that distorted the perception of the location of objects, they
A)experienced a critical period for adaptation.
B)adapted their movements to perform motor tasks.
C)had no difficulty reaching for objects at first.
D)adapted if they were taught techniques of movement.
33. When two brackets are shown facing each other, as shown here [ ], htey may be seen as an incomplete square. This isan example of the Gestalt principle of
A)grouping.
B)figure-ground.
C)closure.
D)similarity.
34. A monocular cue is one that
A)is used to judge egocentric distance.
B)affects percept of apparent motion.
C)disturbs figure-ground relationships.
D)requires only one eye.
35. If a bug is drawn larger than a person, the person will seem to be
A)moving away from the observer.
B)two-dimensional.
C)stereoscopic.
D)farther away.
E)trapped in a BAD HORROR MOVIE!! :)
36. If you only had one eye, what would a person with two eyes probably have that you wouldn't?
A)binocular depth perception.
B)the ability to determine spatial relationships.
C)stroboscopic vision.
D)form perception.
37. One way to achieve an impression of depth in a painting is to
A)make the gradient of texture finer as distance becomes greater.
B)make the details of the distance object sharper.
C)make object size increase as distance increases.
D)make more distance objects block parts of closer objects.
38. Seeing movement on the screen in a movie theater is an example of
A)real motion.
B)stroboscopic motion.
C)autokinetic motion.
D)induced motion.
39. A "motion aftereffect" is
A)apparent movement opposite to what you have been watching.
B)continued movement in the direction of what you have been watching.
C)the inability to see motion for a short time after watching long periods of steady movement.
D)the spontaneous apparent motion of an object fixated on the retina.
40. Because of _____, our perception of a stimulus is influenced by the significance of other stimuli that occur near it in timeand space.
A)schematic encoding.
B)context effects.
C)kinesthesis.
D)bottom-up processing
1